EDIBLE EISHES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 95 



period, are much too uncertain in their recurrence to allow o£ any such 

 profitable fishery — as that pertaining to the industry, as carried on. in European 

 and American waters — being held here, even were any adequate means for 

 their capture employed by our fishermen. These shoals, which periodically 

 appear in the bays and inlets of our deeply indented coast, consist entirely 

 of immature fishes, never or very rarely exceeding twelve inches in length, 

 and showing no trace of their having spawned in the past, nor of any likeli- 

 hood of their so doing in the near future ; we are, therefore, indebted for 

 these visits solely to the abundance or scarcity of suitable food, which 

 consists chiefly of the fry of other fishes, and, according to Mr. Edward Hill, 

 of shrimps and young prawns. Taking into consideration the thousands of 

 individuals which go to comprise' a single shoal, and their extreme voracity, 

 necessitated by an exceptionally active mode of life, it is not to be wondered 

 at that these sources of food supply are quickly exhausted, and this having 

 been effected the shoals disappear as suddenly as they had previously made 

 their appearance. There seems, however, to be a general consensus of 

 opinion that enormous shoals of Mackerel annually pass along our coast 

 about midsummer, heading in a northerly direction, but whether these 

 shoals consist of adult and breeding fishes, or what their ultimate desti- 

 nation is, can only be conjectured. It is, however, more than probable 

 that the "' shoals of enormous magnitude" mentioned in the Report of the 

 fioyal Commission, as causing the sea, "' sometimes for miles, to have the 

 appearance of being almost a solid mass of them," are, when so observed, 

 engaged in the very act of shedding their spawn. Of the habits of the 

 common Atlantic Mackei"el {Scomber scomber), when engaged in perpetuating 

 its species, it has been remarked by 8ars {v. Day, Brit. Eish. i. p. S9) that 

 the ova are " deposited some leagues from the shore, and at the very surface 

 of the waves, where a great quantity of these fishes may often be met with, 

 engaged in spawning." There is no reason to doubt that the breeding 

 operations of our species are carried out in a similar manner. Though 

 normally a fish of very rapid growth, such may be retarded by the absence of 

 suitable food, or by a long continuance of cold and stormy weather. 



Mackerel give excellent sport to the line fisher, either from a boat under 

 easy sail or anchored in a strong tideway, so as to permit of the lines, of which 

 it is always best to use several in each boat, streaming away behind, the 

 sinkers used being of course graduated to the swiftness with which the boat 

 is moving or the strength of the tide ; nor must it be lost sight of that the 

 present species is much more liable to be taken near the bottom than is 8. 

 scomber. Mackerel are not by any means choice in their selection of a bait, 

 almost any glittering substance being sufficient to attract them, but we have 

 never found any lure so deadly as a strip cut off the side of the tail of 

 another mackerel, and termed a task or lashing, and which, when in motion 

 through the water, has a wonderful resemblance to the sinuous movements 

 of a small fish, and being exceedingly tough a single bait may with care be 

 used for the capture of a number of mdividuals. 



In pursuit of their prey Mackerel do not follow it up, as most fishes do, 

 but strike across the line of its flight, as has been observed by us on several 

 occasions, when large shoals entered the harbor of Portrush on the north 

 coast of Ireland, and were taken by hundreds off the quays by means of a rod 

 and line with three or more large white flies attached ; all the fish observed, 

 and these w^ere often within a few feet, struck at the flies at an angle to 

 their course. 



The confusion, which has caused several writers on our food fishes, such 

 as Tenison Woods and even Saville Kent, to confound our common Mackerel 



